


Calico

by vajallie



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Ghost Neji, Ragtag, shamans and grim reapers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-01-15 15:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21255827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vajallie/pseuds/vajallie
Summary: A spineless, ghost-seeing Tenten offers her resident ghost, Neji, the opportunity of his "after"-lifetime to be her lucky charm. She wants to score a permanent job as a shaman with his help. All that he wants is for her to get out of his apartment.





	1. Rules for a Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully, this will be a short story!

“There’s a new tenant in my room,” Neji sits atop his standing closet. Speaking aloud has become a habit with himself. For someone like him, he can speak and no one will be able to hear. Neji stares down to the said person sleeping down below with despondent eyes. “She’s been here for a week and I can’t get rid of her. It’s not because of the salt, nor red beans, nor incense, bells, strings,” his mind trails off. There are too many things this tenant has brought in with her from the outside to protect herself.

It is not because of the talisman she mounted on her door to prevent ghosts from following her inside. It is also not because of the talisman at the foot of the doorway preventing him from leaving. Neji doesn’t even know why such a thing exists here in this plane with him. Neji has no purpose roaming about anywhere outside his apartment room. Therefore, that talisman doesn’t count to him. He has tried crossing it, and he has done so quite flawlessly. It is not the handful of garlic she hangs by the door to the kitchen. It is not the cross above the only window in the room. Neji’s eyes quickly dart to the tiny hand-sewn jewelry bag with scented twigs and amulets. He glimpses past the half-opened closet to where she tucked the pesky thing. It is not that either. 

“It’s because of her massive spiritual strength,” Neji finally admits. His eyes glue back to the white aura sitting on the said tenant. Ever since she moved into his apartment, this spirit of her’s has been guarding her without fail. 

On the first night of her move-in, Neji believed he’d be able to chase this new tenant out with the flick of his wrist. His reputation is quite high in the underworld for how quickly he can disturb and kick humans to the curb. Several times, men and women of varying abilities have come to chase him out of his home but to no avail. It seems as if luck is on his side when this woman became his new tenant. She looked like a weak soul carrying all sorts of ghost deterrents into his home. However, he was wrong. 

Before Neji can attempt to seep into this tenant’s dreams on the first night, the blinding light of her spirit takes form. She guards herself the entire night, keeping her eyes locked onto him wherever he goes. Neji is afraid that this woman’s spirit can eradicate him at the swing of her polearm. Yet for the entirety of the week that she’s been here, all that they’ve done is exchanging threatening glares. And for that, Neji does not know whether he wanted to test that weapon. 

“Honestly, I’m a bit intimidated, even for a ghost.” Neji disappears from the top of the closet to occupy the distance at the head of the woman’s futon. He can see her spirit twisting her head eerily towards him. It somewhat puts him between two hard places, seeing how much fear she’s cascading down to him. His spirits have never been this low in scaring the living life out of a human before. He doesn’t know when to strike. 

The night is the most optimal for any ghost to get their schemes on, seeing as it is when any person is the most vulnerable. But when it comes to this tenant, Neji knows he’ll have to step out of his comfort zone. 

Knowing the little details humans like to attribute to themselves isn’t a task ghosts like to do, especially Neji. Knowing their names, where they work, what path they take, what they like to eat, or wear, or watch— it is what will make ghosts attach themselves to people. And once ghosts become attached, that person will die. Frankly speaking, Neji has heard it is because any attachment to a human means that their person of attachment’s soul will be eaten away. He doesn’t quite remember who told him, but it is a fixed rule ingrained in his brain. Regardless, a ghost with an attachment problem will grow to be a menace, a demon if they aren’t careful. And when they become a demon, grim reapers will come to collect them and bind them eternally to hell. 

It sounded convoluted to Neji when he first heard it or thought of it, but he does not want to question it. He has died a wrongful death, making him eligible to roam the living in search of his wrongdoer. But in the three years staying cooped up in the place of his death, he has found no compelling reason to search for the said person. Neji doesn’t wish to be vengeful for it can manifest itself and eat what human qualities he has left. He’s found his afterlife quite amusing nonetheless, haunting unsuspecting tenants as a ghost should be doing.

But as for this new tenant, Neji knows he has to learn about her little details if he wants to get rid of her. There is no way he can co-exist in a place where he’s being threatened. 

A week into their shared place, Neji already knows she is a human person with extraordinary spiritual strength. He discovered her name the second day when she left the apartment.

“Mei, Tenten,” Neji mouths, slowly circling around the woman’s sleeping figure. Her spirit continues to watch his every move. 

On weekdays, this “Tenten” would jolt herself awake at the first cry of her alarm. Neji discovered she had racked the volume on her phone to the maximum to assure she’d be awake in time for whatever human job she needed to attend to. On days like these, she’d frantically thrash herself about for approximately ten minutes before bolting out the door. And when she’s frantic, worrying about anything other than how haunted her apartment is, there is no amount of fear Neji could instill into her. 

However, on days where she had no human affairs outside, where her alarm wouldn’t ring, Neji found her demeanor to change. This “Tenten” is a massive scaredy-cat. She’d wake up but keep her blankets above her head. And for the next twenty or so minutes, she’d mumble verses to herself to calm her spiked sensitivity before cautiously lowering the blanket down to her chin. Neji first witnessed this on her first weekend here. She had her eyes closed when she pulled the blanket down. She faced the wall where her towel hung, where Neji sat above the lowest shelf staring at her. And when her eyes began to crack, Neji swore he just discovered her worst secret. 

“This tenant can see ghosts,” Neji now stands in front of the woman’s frightening spirit. He steps back, recalling the length of the spirit’s polearm. Neji then nods, stroking his chin as if this secret is one of the firsts for him. 

It wasn’t. 

There was a tenant with a hideous bowl cut who had the ability to see ghosts. As Neji had heard, the landlord did not warn this bowled-cut individual that the room he was staying was haunted. Neji did not know what this bowled-cut person had said to the landlord after witnessing Neji crouching over him one night. However, all that he knew was that there were fewer and fewer new tenants willing to move in. It was a grace period, allowing Neji to have his place to himself. That was until shamans, priests, and monks started coming by on the regular to chase him out. Of course, they all had failed for he still occupied his room.

Neji stepped back from the woman’s spirit until his back hits the windowsill. He snaps his fingers, realizing how easy it will be to mess with her on the weekends. “What will she do when she realizes all these gimmicks on her walls don’t affect me?” Neji chuckles to himself, earning a slight eyebrow raise from the spiritual guardian. He resumes his disdained look and crosses his arms, “This will be an easy win.” Neji smirks at the sleeping tenant’s massive spirit. He will follow this person tomorrow wherever she goes to learn more about her.

Today is the first day of the tenant’s second week here, Neji does as he’s told himself he’d do. He followed her out of his apartment. He stays just three walking steps away from her, trailing behind her like a wagon. Neji isn’t sure if she knows he’s there. She hasn’t made it known although she is quite stiff. In the short walk from his apartment to the bus stop, Neji finds little to no ghosts walking about in the daylight. Those whom he can spot are more than a mile away. They don’t seem to want to be close to this tenant of his’. Nonetheless, he shrugs. Conversing with other ghosts isn’t his forte. It is one of the reasons why he has stayed in his apartment ever since his demise. On this day, Neji learns that his tenant employs herself as a bogus tarot card reader. She shares a workplace with an equally bogus woman shaman. 

* * *

_ Ghosts don’t sleep; they merely rest their eyes. _

Neji gives up on being the night ghoul for this new tenant of his’. After a hearty day following this woman, he returns back home to rest his eyes. He occupies the wide floor of his room, spreading his limbs carelessly. At some point in which he lost his sense of time, Neji is awakened by a light poke to his arm. The sight of his new tenant staring right back at him with her cattish eyes scares the dead soul in him. Neji shrieks loudly, popping himself like a bubble into nonexistence. A human just touched him and no human is supposed to be able to physically interact with an apparition. 

“I can hear you screaming,” the tenant advises him. 

Neji gasps, “Oh no.”

“I can see you too,” she adds. “I can touch you, smell you, I can probably taste you too.”

She is quite relentless. Neji shrinks himself into the kettle fixated on the dish rack. He has never encountered anyone who is able to treat him as if he is human.

“Can you come out?” she is looking everywhere for him. 

“You’re out of your mind!” Neji curses. Hastily, he sees her stomping into the kitchen. She reaches for the kettle, prompting Neji to thrust out and onto the top of the standing closet. A tiny beam is his trail and her eyes catch his speedy escape. Somehow, she has cornered her house ghost. Neji cradles his knees and stares down at her, somehow shaking in fear. It is almost probable that she can be the one to send him either to heaven or to hell. “Why are you doing this?” he asks her whilst cowering.

Neji can tell she is afraid of him as well with the way her lips and knees are trembling. Slowly, her spine straightens up with each vertebra. Her eyes are on him like a cat to a target. She then parts her lips, “Because you’re not a ghost.”

The glimpse of certainty in her golden eyes almost convinces Neji she’s correct. He frowns at her for a few seconds until it dawns on him how ridiculous this situation is. Neji begins to laugh. His hair falls down to darken his face. It is then that his tenant cowers and steps away from him. “If I’m not a ghost, then what am I?” Neji slips down from the top of the closet. He approaches her with a threatening demeanor. In his mind, he wonders if his ghoulish tactics are scaring her enough to drive her out. 

“I- I don’t really know,” she shakily resounds. Her eyes seem to regret approaching him.

The tenant is a conundrum Neji can’t really understand. When she’s awake, she’s a spineless human who’ll jump at every sound. And when she’s asleep, she’s formidable, being capable of sending him back to life and to death again. “What exactly are you?” Neji asks. 

The tenant’s eyes avert to the ground. From there she closes them for just one second before they’re back on him. And when they glue themselves onto him again, Neji gets a feeling she has something up her sleeve. She parts her lips and speaks, “If- if I tell you, you have to promise to help me.”

Neji draws back, squinting his eyes at the ludicrosity, “You’re kidding.”

“I- I am serious,” she rustily stands her ground.

“I want you out of my home,” Neji quickly disregards her request. 

“I’ll do it if you help me.”

Neji scoffs, “You’re a sly person!”

“Please help me-”

“Get out of my house-”

“I’ll do it as soon as you help me.”

“You don’t get to interrupt a ghost!”

The tenant flinches with the light above them flickering. She rubs her right ear with a knuckle. 

Neji almost worries for her but recalls that it is she who is being unreasonable. “What, got your ear ringing?” The tenant glares at him just like her spirit throwing knives with her stares during the night. Neji steps back, being reminded of her extraordinary power. 

“I- I really don’t want to ask her to kill you.”

Neji’s mouth runs agape, “What?”

Before he can further his concerns, she continues, “Please enter an agreement with me, Neji.”

Neji feels as if he should disappear into thin air again. He has forgotten his own name in the years he spent alone, not hearing anyone use it. However, this person somehow knows his name. Not even the shamans, priests, nor monks who have visited him can even put his name on their tongues. 

“What are you?”


	2. Shaman Rookie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tenten tries to coerce Neji to help her find a job. However, Neji questions her credibility.

Tenten adjusts her collar, averting her gaze to stare at the wall. She can’t believe she just threatened a wandering soul with her own spiritual guardian. Tenten puckers her lips, knocking some sense to her frail knees to stand firm. Her eyes creep back to the blazing letters above his head; they spelled his name. Tenten pries her trembling jaw open to speak but her lips stay glued to one another. She is too afraid to speak. 

“Well?” Neji pokes, “what are you?” He leans back, hair easing away from his framed face.

Tenten’s eyes are now erratic. She clears her throat, “I- I am obviously a human-” Her eyes drop down to meet his own. He squints his eyes and it is at that moment she realizes she needs to try harder if she’s to get him to accept her house agreement. “-a very gifted human,” Tenten adds on with the tweak of her voice. It cracks and she almost falters. 

Neji stares at her still with eyes of scrutiny. He crosses his arms defensively, feeling uninterested now. “Uh, right.” He steps back, making half of his body disappear, “Clearly there’s an imbalance in here,” Neji points to his head whilst nodding at her. Tenten’s frazzled brows never seem to settle from their frightened state as she witnesses him as a floating head. “If I can’t scare you out of here then, I guess I’ll just annoy you to death.” 

Neji begins to circle her as Tenten stands still. Her eyes follow his head as they pass by her peripherals. “I- I’ve said I can touch you,” she fails to threaten him.

“Of course, new tenant-”

“You know my name,” Tenten corrects him. Neji immediately stops right in front of her and she purses her lips closed. She looks away from him. “I- I heard you say my name at night you know.”

Neji cocks his head, his eyes stare to the ceiling while his mouth runs agape. It is quite a face he hasn’t done in years. “Huh,” he huffs. He makes a mental note to never utter her name again. Neji then resumes his flying head to circle his new tenant at an even faster rate. She has now closed her eyes and begins moving around to stop seeing his face flashing before her eyes. “Then that means you heard everything I said all these nights.”

“Yes,” Tenten balls her fists. Even while closed, her eyes still see him whirring around her. He is irritating. “I- I warned you that I can touch you. T- that means I can punch you too!”

“I’ll just have to stay far away from your limbs then- HUAK!”

Tenten throws a hard punch forward, landing on Neji’s ghostly face. She flings her eyelids open to see the full-bodied soul flying backward until he hits the wall. “Oh goodness!” she cries out. She has never hit anyone, let alone a soul. “I’m sorry!”

Neji rubs his cheek, massaging his jaw. He hasn’t felt pain since he died and the new sensation sends him overboard. He glares at her fragile frame. “What the hell,” he whispers. “If you can physically touch me, then I can do the same,” he mutters. Without warning, Neji lunges at Tenten, shutting his eyes closed. His chances of shoving her are fifty-fifty. 

Tenten flinches but the impact never comes. She turns around, seeing him hurl towards the door. “Wow,” she breathlessly says. “So they can’t reciprocate. I need to write this down-”

“Argh,” Neji groans. He can’t quite recall being this reckless. He sits up, crisscrossing his legs and resting an elbow to his knees. He then props his chin on it. Neji no longer finds the need to do anything. He just realized he’s holding the short end of the stick. “You’re not a shaman nor a priest-”

Tenten kneels to the ground, crouching down with the floor as her surface to write on. She hurries to inscribe the phenomenon she just witnessed. 

Neji judges her clumsy demeanor before continuing to speak while she ravages out a pen and paper, “I can’t believe I don’t know what you are. I can’t harm you,” his pinky finger flings out to address his claims, “I can’t really scare you,” his ring finger comes next, “probably can’t throw objects at you-”

“Please be quiet,” Tenten hushes him. The sound of her scribbling pen scrambles in his ears.

“It’s unfair!” he squirms. “Get out of my house!”

The pen stops scribbling. Neji stares at her. She’s now looking at him with a new set of eyes; they are bold and determined. 

“I’ll get out of your house, I promise, Neji,” Tenten bends up and begins to shuffle towards him like a child. 

She scares Neji, seeing how quickly she’s closed the distance between them. He pops into thin air once more, causing her to sigh with her chest. “What the hell are you, human! Don’t you know about personal space?!”

Tenten’s ears wiggle and she runs her eyes to the cross hanging above the window. She stands up. All the fear residing in her starts to pluck themselves out of her body. “I’ll get out, but under one condition-”

“I’m not agreeing to anything, you weirdo!”

Tenten scoffs, jumping up to swipe the cross. The white beam moves to the built-in closet. Tenten stomps after him, “Who’s the weirdo?!” Before Neji can crawl into the corners of the closet, Tenten yanks the beam of light. It being his hair, he yelps. “You’re the weird one!”

It is no use trying to struggle against someone he can’t affect. Already, Neji’s shirt is already in her gnarly fists and she has already hoisted him up to her height. “No, you!” he’s really considering popping out of this room and taking a stroll. 

“Wait, don’t disappear-”

“Sorry, not sorry, human,” Neji calmly says as he limps in her grasp. “You’re evil. Even the dead can’t rest-”

Tenten’s eyes widen. She can feel his body about the burst into nothingness. Breathing heavily, she yells, “You’re not dead!” Neji blinks. He isn’t sure if he heard it correctly. “You’re not dead!” Tenten repeats, “you’re alive! You’re not a ghost!”

Neji lifts his head up and rests his stern eyes on her. “As I said, there’s an imbalance in your head-”

“No, no,” Tenten releases her grasp of him. She gulps and stares down to his legs, “There’s no imbalance in my head.” Tenten’s mouth becomes dry, “And I can’t be wrong, Neji. Because,” Their eyes meet again. This time, there sits three twinkling sparkles in her eyes; Neji doesn’t know why he counted them. “I’m a shaman-in-training, well I was.”

Neji’s eyes narrow on her. Still not being used to being handled by anyone, he straightens his shirt and takes one good step away from her. “I can see why you were one.”

“How so?”

“Your spirit wears traditional shaman uniform,” Neji tells her. 

Awe overwhelms Tenten’s face, “My spiritual guardian wears an actual shaman uniform?”

Neji’s left eye winces, “You act as if you don’t know that.”

“I don’t!” Tenten exclaims. A wide grin is on her lips, “I can’t even see her!” She sighs in astonishment, “Wow, I’ve been told my sixth sense is in overdrive and that it makes my spirit super strong. Does she look strong?”

“Why are we talking so casually?” Neji is taken aback, “Wait, wait. Forget that. You said I’m alive?” He strokes his chin, propped by his forearm whilst observing her giddily antics. “Miss-”  _ Miss? _ Neji shuts his jaw and feels his entire face melting. 

Tenten shutters the moment her eyes land on his face. She shakes his shoulders in an attempt to stop his skin from falling off his face, “Neji, please don’t do that,” she shuts her eyes and turns her head away, “it’s disgusting.” It is only natural for her to act upon something so unnatural. 

Sourness implants themselves onto Neji’s tastebuds. And when Tenten has her hands around his shoulders, he cringes, projecting himself into oblivion. It is not like him to address the living as anything other than their prestigious label: human. As she’s begging him to stop his melting face from falling to his floor, Neji can already see himself comfortable with her in his house. He groans loudly, sucking up his skin back onto his face; he shouldn’t have familiarized himself with her at all. 

“Uagh, it’s too scary,” Tenten backs away from him. Ghost faces will never be something casual to see every day. Although Neji is not a ghost, he sure can imitate one. 

“Please,” Neji says in exhaustion, “explain why I’m not a ghost.”

Tenten scratches her nose and puckers her lips, “Because I can’t touch ghosts,” she ends with a smile and a nod. His features have returned to normal.

Neji squints terribly, wondering if he can trust her words. “You were a shaman-in-training, right?”

“Uh-huh,” Tenten sits down, prompting Neji to follow suit. 

“Care to elaborate?”

“If I do, you have to promise me that you’ll go into an agreement with me.”

“Why is it so important to you that I be in an agreement with you?” Neji crosses his arms and she does so as well. 

Tenten thinly presses her lips shut. Her head leans left and right, eyes reaching for the ceiling as the seconds pass. Neji begins to bite his inner cheek. She looks very comfortable now. If he were to freak her out with his melting face again, this time intentionally, he wonders if she’ll move out.

“I desperately need a job at the shaman’s workplace,” Tenten explains. “You followed me there, c’mon. You saw how much potential I have!”

“Sorry, I can’t really comment on someone’s ability to exorcise me-”

“Neji!” Tenten whines, “You’re not dead! I can’t exorcise a living soul.”

Neji rolls his eyes and blows a short breath. “I mean, I wouldn’t know would I? Suddenly, this inexperienced rookie girl with a third eye and a knack for poking ghosts is telling me I’m not dead and I’m just supposed to believe her? Believe you?” He scoffs, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“You’re really sly,” Tenten punches him with his own words. 

“You’re talking to no one if anybody sees you.”

Tenten chuckles, unable to contain the insanity of the situation she’s put herself in. Neji is correct. If anyone were to walk in on her, she’d look insane having a conversation with herself. She hides her smile under her sleeve and meets his eyes. “You’re right. But I said you’re sly because you’re prying for me to indirectly tell you what I am.” 

Neji raises a brow and cocks his head. He understands he may have just done that. 

“I promise you, I can do more than get out of this apartment,” Tenten claims. 

“Oh really,” Neji retorts.

Tenten nods excitedly, “I can guide you back to your body.”

Neji’s eyes almost fall out of their sockets, “Are you serious?”

“Before I ran-” Tenten halts her tongue and recovers quickly, “When I- well, anyways, I was told my encounters won’t all be just ghosts and demons when I’m a full-fledge shaman. Sometimes I’d have to guide living souls back to their bodies. And you’re my first lost soul!” a warm and cheeky grin sits on her face. It somehow radiates to Neji’s own. 

“And you somehow guessed I was a lost soul, how?” Neji inquires. 

“All my senses wrangle up when I saw you eyeing me as I walked in here. I thought you were a ghost at first, hence all these useless things hanging on my walls. But when you triggered none of these things, when I couldn’t hear the bells ringing, I knew you weren’t a ghost,” Tenten tells him. “Will you help me now?”

Neji’s mouth slants crookedly. If there is any chance her words are true, he wonders if he’ll be able to at least see his human form. The thought of it intrigues him. Although Neji has no intention of living to die again or re-experience the idea of death again, he wants to at least see the state of his body. The years spent living content with wandering as a soul per se and forgetting his name, Neji should at least see what her agreement is. With a very subtle nod and a wiggle of his brow, he gives in.

Tenten’s grin bloom like sunflowers. She clutches the pen and paper close to her chest, filled with optimism. “Great!-”

“Answer my first question first,” Neji blandly commands, “sincerely.”

“First question?” she asks. He nods like a stringed puppet. “First question, first question- Ah! Right! What am I?” Neji closes his eyes, offering no further motions. Tenten buzzes, humming whilst her mouth swishes left and right. “I am the last of the Calico, I think.”

Neji cracks an eye at her. She should have left her answer without the last two words and he’d be fine with it. “You think?” His brows frown.  _ She makes things so complicated.  _

“I’m not sure. The seer came to me, said I belonged to the Calico, and then took me to a shaman to awaken my guardian spirit,” Tenten can vividly recall every moment as she said it, “anyways, long story short I need a job at that shaman’s workplace and I need your help.” 

“And why is that.”

Tenten leans in, closing their distances to which Neji’s nonexistent pulse jumps. “I’m not sure if living souls are ghost deterrents, but you are.”


	3. Tag-Team: A Soul's Needs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neji meets a mysterious man whose garments enchants his every thought. Later, Neji asks Tenten to offer him a new wardrobe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a slow update this is. Anyways, I'd like to point out that graduation for Tenten means being able to conquer her first demon and return to the realm of the living the way she entered.

The subject of becoming a fully graduated shaman requires courage to confront the spirits of the other side, something Tenten lacks. However, her brain has put two and two together. On that fateful day Neji followed her out, those looming shadows that littered the streets suddenly moved far out from her radius. Tenten concludes it easily that this "Neji" phenomenon must be the reason why. It is why she needs him by her side in order to be a shaman. He will be her charm to protect her.

She could have become anything here in this grimy city but the spirits towering over her shoulders will not allow it. Tenten is no longer a normal person juggling jobs around normal people. The ghosts and demons will not see to it. They ride within her vicinity, peeking from the outside, sometimes walking around within her former workplace to attract her attention. She cannot focus and in less than a month in this dull concrete city, she has become unfavorable to hire. Seeing how inadequate the numbers of shamans are in ratio to the bumbling spiritual realm, Tenten cannot escape from her newly unlocked duties. She needs Neji in order to survive.

* * *

Tenten scribbles a little note into her "Official Soul Databook: Exhibit 1, Neji (no surname)", 'he is a ghost deterrent'. It is the first day of their house agreement going into effect. Neji has tagged along behind at her heels as they make their first formal exit out of the apartment.

"Pretty good so far," Tenten whispers. Her eyes dart to every corner of the hallway of their apartment. Her nervous spine shakes less and less with every step towards the stairs. "Yes, pretty good. We're doing fine," she calms her anxious thumping heart.

Neji stares at the cowardly woman with transparent eyes. He frowns, appointing a thinned lip unimpressed glare as his countenance. He crosses his arms and scrutinizes her from the bottom up. Her gait is cowardly, even her shoelaces are frightened. Her knees bend inwards, trembling with tremendous dismay to walk the world. He rolls his eyes and inevitably lands them on her furled fists. They are agitated and frisky, ready to jump at any being whether it be living or dead. The woman is spineless even with him here. He cannot even fathom what she'll do when they encounter a ghost. However, Neji makes no squeaks or squabbles regarding her nature. He lifts his feet from the ground and effortlessly floats after the woman.

The crowded streets fill with hot smoke from morning vendors. The daily commute smashes people of various institutions together. They cross streets and vine their way according to their livelihood. But Neji, he is wrapped with her. It is in their house agreement that he will not stray from her commute to her shaman apprenticeship. He sticks to her heels even as she gets lost in the crowd of migrating flocks. With every body sliding through him, taking his nonexistent space, Neji feels inadequate and upset.

Neji sort of misses taking space in the mortal world. When he sees and hears her grunt and apologize to others, and ask to make way; when he sees her squeezing through people towering over her, weaving through them, nudging them; when she leaves a fraction of empty space after her momentarily as she passes through them, it makes him wish he could exist to fill that place and be someone. Neji misses the feeling of being, of belonging, to take place solidly. He's heart-ached over interacting with physicality. He wants to feel the concrete that he's walking on, or the grass, or wood, or tiles but he cannot.

Wanting to find his body has never become as dire as it is now. As the fantasies of discovering his living body flourish his mind, a genuine simper settles on his lips. His guarded crossed arms drop and he falls into a levitating daydream as his soul follows her effortlessly. Neji wonders how the vendors' steam smell. He ponders if the fumes are hot to the skin or if they become cold with the gloomy sky. He speculates whether it really is cold or not and if the fog escaping from her mouth is warm or hot.

"Hmph," Neji sounds, earning a "huh" from Tenten as she makes it to the end of the crosswalk. He pouts, feeling dismayed that it will not be for a long time until he'd be able to experience anything.

"What's with this stuffy sidewalk?" Tenten addresses. A bystander says he does not know. Her question breaks Neji's self-loathing. His sight fixates on the scene as their route has become compromised. Regardless, they press on upwards toward the masses.

Tenten snakes her way through the crowd until she reaches the scene. It is then that her false courage diminish. It is a constant farce built up by the number of people surrounding her. At the sight of the accident where a deceased woman lays, her fright emerges like a tidal wave. Tenten is urged behind the yellow tape as tardy police personnel draws a perimeter for the crime scene. She takes in a deep breath and hopes to reach Neji's ears, "We have to go." They have to go because where there is a death, there is a reaper. _And if one is here, it will not be safe for him._ Tenten slides past the sidewalk and onto the street. She walks hastily, keeping her attention forward without looking back until she has passed the crowd. But when she turns her head back, he is not with her.

"Neji," she panics. If the reaper has gotten him, her charm would be gone. Tenten runs back towards the crowd, frantic and desperate to find him. "Neji!"

Neji is tranced in the man with dark flowy garments draped on him. Such an obscure thing that the man is, it captures Neji's eyes immediately. The man adorns lengthy hair under that blackened wide-brimmed hat from the perspective that Neji can see. Immediately, Neji knows this man is not a living person. A sense of hollowness engorges Neji's core as he steadies his way around to see the mysterious man's face. The first thing Neji notices is the paleness of his skin. The man is whiter than the moon. However, what chokes Neji's entirety and keeps him still from Tenten is the pair of silvered eyes that he bears. The man is alluring with the suave clothes he wears.

"Neji!" his name rings in his ears harshly. Neji winces and turns to look at her. As he turns, his eyes catch the movement of the mysterious man's head tilting up. Neji snaps his head back and makes grave eye contact with the man in black. It is then that Neji can see the soul of the deceased woman holding the man's hand. Before Neji can comprehend who this spirit is, the man bows his head to him, closing his eyes with a smile of acknowledgment before stepping back.

"Neji!" Tenten has found Neji.

The mysterious man and the soul blend through the crowd. Neji lets out a compressed sigh, "Weird. Does he know me?"

"Hey!" Tenten grabs his wrist and yanks him to her height. "You're breaking the rules!"

Neji shakes her hand off and feigns a pain, caressing his wrist as if she has hurt him, "You broke it too! Don't touch me without asking!" He peeks back to see if the mysterious man is still within his sight.

"I could've lost you, stupid! What do I have to do to keep you with me huh? Chain you to me?!" Tenten yells at him. "I'm already frazzled with this lady's death and now I gotta reel you back- Hurry up! I'm going to be late!" Tenten pulls her hoodie over her face and childishly holds it close at her chin. She bolts away from the crowd in absolute embarrassment. Assumingly grouchy, Neji drags along after her with dispirited eyes. The mysterious man's clothing keeps close in his mind. Even more, Neji keeps Tenten's worried words closer. He hasn't felt wanted since he can remember. Noticing that he's still rubbing his wrist, Neji drops the act. He cannot feel pain anyway.

Tenten finally releases the hold of her hoodie when she enters madam shaman's workspace. She shuts the door closed and hurries to her knees, "I'm sorry for being late, there has been a death by-"

"Her relatives came to me to pardon her soul, but alas, I am too frail to go to the site," the shaman explains. Neji stands beside Tenten as he stares the old woman down. Her murky white eyes indicate her blindness, but it seems as if she can see him. Neji's suspicions are correct. "Did you come with someone?"

Tenten tips her head to Neji and they made eye contact. She then turns to the shaman and blinks in disbelief, "Uh, no."

"This energy is not good, not bad. This energy came with you last time did it not?"

They make eye contact again. This time, Tenten's face scrunches up. Neji merely shrugs. "Y-yes, it did."

"You should not let such unrecognized energy stay for long. It may bring you greater danger than you can handle."

"I understand."

"No you don't," Neji mocks her.

Tenten cautions his snide comment with the stiff mouth of hers and those hardened threatening glare. He titters and rolls his eyes as she rises to her feet.

"Due to the unforeseen death this morning, my client has postponed our meeting today. Since I will not be paid, nor will you. You are free to go."

Tenten puckers her lips before pressing them thinly, "Madam, I haven't been paid since a month ago."

"I'm not used to paying people, only getting paid. Unless you remind me, you will not see green," the shaman mutters as she pulls out her phone.

Tenten roams her eyes around the stuffy room until they land on Neji's own. She sticks out her tongue to him.

"Hey Moegi, auntie knows you're busy but Miss Mei would like to get paid- yes, yes. Be careful with the demons downtown, okay? Bye-bye." The flip phone snaps and grabs both of their attention. "It's done. Please find your way out-"

"Madam," Tenten urges, "about my graduation."

"What about?"

Tenten gulps and can already feel her fingers tremble, "May you please send me to a good place to complete my graduation."

The shaman's face has gone cold. She immediately shakes her head no, "You are a magnet of light that will be devoured if you cannot connect yourself with your guardian spirit. I will be sending you to your death even if to a lower-tiered demon."

"Moegi had such a weak link to her spirit guardian and you let her conquer demons," Tenten reasons.

"So have I," the shaman tells her. "Us shamans are common, weakly connected to our spirit guardian. However, the circumstances are different for you, Miss Mei. We shine dimly. But you, your guardian is bursting with a strength unequal to ours. If you've any connection with your spirit guardian, I would know. But I've sensed no difference in you. I'm afraid your final assignment will be postponed until evidence suggests otherwise."

Tenten bites her lower lips in disappointment, "You always say the same things."

"Yet, you've learned nothing to allow yourself to see your spirit guardian."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Tenten asks earnestly, "I've done everything you told me to do. I sat in a trance for three hours and saw nothing. I've even allowed ghosts you've cast to haunt me to entice my spirit to come and save me. I drank the sacred things you made for me and nothing has worked. I want to become a real shaman. Please send me to a good place for me to complete my apprenticeship."

The shaman utters no last words. Tenten leaves her with no goodbyes. She frustratingly stomps down the narrow concrete stairs to the sidewalk with Neji idling along. He tries to hide his smile, obviously knowing it will not bring him any good. However, her dilemma with her teacher is far too amusing. It has been a while since he's experienced anyone's personal troubles. The fact that it is her's makes it all acceptable for coercing him to be her charm.

"Oh shut it," Tenten scorns the lost soul as he snickers.

"You are quite deserving of that restraint," he smirks.

Tenten glares at Neji and glowers, "If I'm not becoming a shaman, you can forget about getting to your body."

At her words, Neji eats his laughter. He takes in a deep breath and sighs. As she leans on the rails, so does he. "Say," he whispers, "if you don't mind giving me a few offerings, I can take you to a very active spot and help you take down a demon."

He piques her ears. Tenten turns to him with a wide grin, "I get it!" she says with much delight, "then I can prove to her how capable I am with your help!"

Neji's smile widens with the fantasy of meeting his living body at the forefront of his mind, "Not with my help," he addresses her to caution her word, "we're merely helping one another."

Tenten chuckles in reverence for the soul, "You darn genius," she snickers. Her frustration is gone. "Okay, I'm ready! Let's go conquer some demons!"

Neji judges the silly child with open expression. He kicks a pebble to her back. Propelled with energy, the tiny thing makes her whimper. Tenten straightens up right away and spins back to him. Neji has his head tilted upwards, his eyes laid on the gray sky and arms crossed. There is only one thing on his mind, "My offerings first."

"And what are they?"

The free-flowing silk fabric encompasses all his thoughts. Neji has never tried wearing anything near similar to the mysterious man he just met a while ago but he wants it. He wants a wide-brimmed hat and fancy shoes. He even wants to try those vendors' food just to add to his desires. "What are they?" he confirms her question.

Tenten nods. She hopes its something affordable.

"A new wardrobe."

"Wardrobe?"

"And food."


	4. Passionate Highway Rides

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tenten takes Neji to find the clothes he desperately wants. Tenten gets stuck in a half realm between the real and spiritual realms as a demon attempts to harm her. Neji successfully defeats the demon. Returning home from the market, Tenten offers Neji food amidst the awkwardness in the air. As the night draws to a close, Tenten's spiritual guardian appears and chases Neji.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. To give offerings to ghosts, or in this case to Neji, the goods must be burned.  
2\. In this story, there is a real realm, a spirit realm, and a half realm. In a half realm, the person is subjected to a void-like atmosphere where ghosts and demons can harm them.  
3\. In this fictional story, there are Nine Heavens. And in order to gatekeep between the living and the dead, one of the ways to do so is through the "chain of four elements". Its purpose is to prevent strong emotional attachments between occupants of the spirit realm and humans.
> 
> (The summary isn't doing this chapter any justice.)

Tenten scratches her scalp. A frown sits on her face as she stares at her drawing at multiple angles. Unsatisfied, she shows it to Neji. The soul takes a look at the wrinkled paper and wiggles his finger; the drawing is nothing like the clothing in his mind. Tenten sighs and flips the paper back. Either Neji is bad at describing the clothing or she's a poor drawer. Tenten leans on her side on the ground and pulls a taffy candy out from its plastic bag.

"One last time," Neji informs her, "it looks like this." He stands up to his feet as she rolls her eyes. Tenten chews on the taffy. Neji attempts to recall how the glide of the fabric was on the mysterious man. His arms rise and begin to move in waves, "the arms flow like this in the wind. It's really long," he kicks his leg upwards, "and it's flowy and cascades like this."

Tenten snorts and scrunches up the taffy paper, "You keep doing the same movements. How am I supposed to know how it looks like if you keep showing me the same thing," she throws the wrapper paper at him and misses completely. Tenten sighs and crumples her drawing up, "I guess we can go look around after my food is delivered. Right now, I'm hungry and I don't want to get up."

Neji's arms hang low and he stares at her laying on her side whilst propping her head by her elbow. Her foot sways left and right to the sound of the radio from their neighbor. He straightens up and takes one step back, assessing her casual demeanor.

Knowing more about her makes her a bearable person to live with between humans and souls. This odd sensation is new for him, feeling comfortable around someone like her. It makes him suspicious of his guard diminishing. He promptly excuses himself with the pop of a bubble. Neji disappears in the blink of an eye, making her momentarily search for him. However, he is still there, small like a speck of dust on the windowsill. She won't even be able to see him unless he wants her to. Neji watches her in a dazed perplexion.

"Don't go somewhere far," she warns him.

Hearing that, Neji perks a hefty brow. He likes her. There is no reason to justify why at the moment. There is nothing of her personally wading near him. Neji likes her.

"If I start seeing things again you can say bye-bye to your clothes."

Neji snickers. He has decided they will become friends even after he returns to his body.

* * *

Tenten evens her collar whilst hitting the streets once more. The sun is nowhere to be seen but the sky still brightly lights itself. For that, she is out again strutting with Neji behind her, before her, and to each side of her. He acts like a child who is eager to buy his favorite thing. He makes her worry, not for him but for herself. Because of him, her eyes are constantly keeping him within her vision. He makes her veer left and right, bumping into strangers one after another. She becomes the visible maniac whilst he runs as one.

Down underground where the busy marble stairs lead, the daily market continues on with its congested traffic. White lights hang above them as they navigate their way through the market. Chattering to herself like a deranged person, Tenten pursues after Neji. His feet glide effortlessly, floating with ease through people's bodies. His eyes are busy, moving frantically through all the goods. There is only one thing on his mind: those clothes worn by the mysterious man. Never has Neji wanted anything as much as this aside from his living body. His energy is contained whilst hers is not. He cannot wait to have those clothes offered to him by burning.

As one frenetic hour passes by, it sucks out all of Tenten's stamina. All of those bickering with thin air, of becoming a lunatic in others' eyes, Tenten is about to drop it all and trade it for a bench. Tolerating this charm of hers for this long as he gripes about his offerings makes her head pang. Tenten shoos him off, instructing him to return to her when he finds anything remotely similar to whatever is on his mind. But just as she secures a bench, Neji returns with a personable grin on his lips.

"Are you serious?" she asks him.

Neji nods once, turning his chin to his shoulder. He points to the far end of the market, "It's all there."

Tenten grows suspicious of his words. He has only parted from her for five minutes. And in these five minutes, he has done what they couldn't do an hour ago. Regardless, Tenten follows him beat by beat. Her eyes lay on his back, roaming universally between his opaque shoulder blades until a question grows in her mind. It is like a green sprout poking from her skull the more she keeps her eyes on his back. Before Tenten can ask, he stops and points to a dead-end of the hallway. Her eyes gravitate to the generic area.

"There's-" Tenten's voice trails off. Unbelievably, the dead-end is anything but one. An ominous aura radiates like a black fire from there. "There's nothing there." Indeed, there is no store there at all but a narrow hallway as wide as her shoulders. She does not know where it leads. Though the hallway is lit with a red glow, Tenten walks toward it with no fear. It is because Neji is here.

At the twelfth step, still a far way away from the red hall and, an old woman in white appears from the side of the hall. She stares directly at Tenten and beckons her to come closer with the wave of her hand. She does.

Through the doorless door frame that the old woman peeked out from, Tenten is awed at the expansiveness of the room that is revealed to her. She steps in to admire it further.

Low tables are straightened out evenly with red tablecloths embroidered in gold strings. Merchandise folded and pressed orderly are stacked on top of the tables. Whether it be clothes, sashes, robes, or any other apparel, the old woman carries them all. Upon closer look, Tenten recognizes these clothes are not for casual wear. They resemble that of traditional wear, encompassing high-collared blouses, cross-collared robes, tunics, skirts, and shirts. Meant for those closely attuned to the spirit world, even Tenten will not be able to wear these taboo clothes until she graduates.

"Wow," a word slips out as Tenten's eyes gleam over the trinkets and various other accessories hanging from the ceiling, "such a place exists?"

The old woman smirks with glee, "This is no peculiar place, miss. I trust that you'll be a fair customer in the near future."

Tenten takes in one careless step towards the tables. Her fingertips brush against a white cloak embroidered with silver threads. "Why is it so empty?"

"One customer a day," the old lady does not miss a beat. Her eyes scrutinize Tenten's unweary touch. "Today, you are not looking for that." Tenten looks up and sees the old woman lure her in with the gesture of her tilted head. "The chances of meeting the likes of you," she pauses and glances past Tenten's shoulder to Neji, "and you, are remarkably slim. Come, I have just the garment your friend is looking for."

"Friend?" Tenten chokes, "you can see him?"

The old woman merely disagrees, "All I can see is a blur. But you are a special one, quite bright you are."

"Yeah, I've heard," she acknowledges.

The old woman fishes through a wedge, pulling out a carmine paper bag from under the foot of the shelf. It makes Tenten question how any of that is possible. However, Neji has remained quiet for far too long. Although he sticks to her like glue, it is as if he is nonexistent in this place. Tenten believes they shouldn't linger here for another minute. Although they shouldn't stay long, she wants to feast on these magical items fully with her eyes. Tenten does not know when she'll have the chance to return and obtain these mythical weapons.

"I believe this is what your friend inquires," the old woman sounds as she hands the bag to Tenten.

Tenten stops awing over the relics in this room and turns to the old woman. "How much-" Tenten begins to fumble through her pockets for her wallet.

"No amount is worth my gift to you," the old woman tells her. Tenten raises a brow in circumspect, "You will repay me with good deeds. But in order to do that, you must live to be a shaman of your magnitude. And when you are, return to me to receive your cloak."

The old woman's short prose leaves Tenten perplexed. She steps back out of the room, taking only two of the seven steps but is already at the door. Tenten can only nod dumbly and thank the old woman for the confusing exchange. She walks backward out of the narrow hallway and watches as the hallway's red glow die out until there is nothing more but a concrete wall.

"What the hell was that?" Tenten whispers to herself. Despite being conscious and wary of all of her actions, she still cannot believe that it happened.

"Rather it be a lucid dream instead?" Neji teases her.

Tenten looks daggers at him and then swiftly snaps her eyes to the bag. "Would make more sense anyways." She peeks through the bag and begins to walk, "Well, let's get started and burn these things!"

Glee arrives in Neji's expression, "Alright-"

Glancing up, Tenten is met with a menacious passageway. Sinister darkness begins to accumulate as each white light above her begins to flicker and die. The clusters of people roaming around are nowhere to be seen. The liveliness and cacophonous market have become a breeding ground for ghosts. Not one human soul is palpable. Met with a somber mood, the cowardly tail of Tenten's grows in length. Although she cannot see a thing, not even a ghoul, she can sense a foreboding aura unlike any other approaching her. However, a small fire of courage still breathes within Tenten's core because she can still see Neji. And though she has never experienced this sudden shift in a situation before, because he is here, her nerves are intact.

"Something's coming," Tenten whispers. Her eyes stare straight into the darkness. Loosely, Tenten begins to feel her body tremble minimally. It is almost like the induced trance her teacher has put her through. However, this time, circumstances are not the same. Tenten wonders if this is truly a trance.

"I know," Neji replies strongly. He glances at her. She is a lost child with eyes as wide as the ocean. "What can you see?"

"Nothing. It's all dark here."

Neji knits his brows. "How can you not see it?" He looks back to the market path they currently stand on. If his heart can beat, it would be a drum of war.

"What are you talking about?" Tenten asks irritably.

They do not see the same things. Neji suspects Tenten must be stuck between the real and the spirit realm. Right now, perhaps due to her lacking connection with her guardian spirit she can only see nothing but darkness. Unlike her, Neji clearly sees the people moving on about with their shopping and selling. He sees them walk and laugh and chatter. He too can see what's causing her sudden shift into the darkness.

Hopping from body to body, Neji witnesses a child-like demon wrapped in a dried bloody cloth coming towards the both of them. It bears no eyes. With nails as long as nail guards and skin blackened with obsidian veins, it hurdles with clumsy leaps towards them. It is because of this blindness that it has carelessly come to them. With no fear of Neji, it closes its distance. He has never encountered anything that is willing to confront him. Neji has never fought any demons before, at least, none that he can remember.

"What do you see?" Tenten urgently questions him. Her heart beats with an incomprehensible tune. Her senses crash in waves stronger than its predecessors. It makes her body cover in goosebumps with a chill like no other. "What is it?"

He does not answer.

"What is it?!" Tenten grabs his hands and intertwines their fingers. In her sight, there is only darkness and him. Holding onto the only familiar thing she knows, she screams, "Say something!"

"It's a blind demon," Neji finally admits. The demon comes to them viciously. At the last moment, Neji tries to step away from his tenant but discovers he cannot do so. Glancing down, Neji realizes Tenten has held him to her. "It's heading your way," he tells her. Standing next to her, he looks back up to the demon approaching them, "We shouldn't be linked like this!" He is afraid he'll become a target just like her.

Neji will never know when she's touching him unless he sees her doing so. A part of him doesn't tread the thought on whether her hands are soft or not, or if she's holding onto him tightly or softly. His state of being will not allow such a thing.

"My way?!" Tenten panics.

Her cry breaks him from further thinking of the impossible. The demon creeps closer and closer, testing Neji's devoured courage.

"What do I do? Where do I go?!" Tenten screams. Terror lands across her countenance and will not leave. Her blood is beyond boiling. Tenten begs her spirit guardian to save her to no avail. As that dark fear grows with the demon near approaching, Tenten yelps. She can no longer feel the bag that she's holding, not even Neji's hand. Her body is shaking beyond comprehension internally. "Help me!" The closer it comes, the more her life is pressed at her throat.

The demon leaps toward them in the blink of an eye, screeching with a pitch only Neji is affected by. His eyes widen. A surge of indescribable power Neji has never felt before erupts from within. With no physical thoughts of his own, Neji's arm raises up. He parries the demon's lunge from muscle memory just as it captures his arm by releasing that unknown power. It catapults the demon into the ceiling, having the building swallow it whole. The lights flicker once like fallen dominoes beginning from where they both stand and leaves them in darkness once more. Neji stares down to his hand in bewilderment. Around him, the people carry on in their mundane activities.

"What was that?" Tenten's voice shakes him out from his awe. She felt him move just now for he had tugged her.

Before Neji can reply, he hears her wince. Neji turns to her, finding a bloody cut the size of his pinky on her temple.

If his heart had been beating, it would have stopped right now. Neji attempts to hold her petite face within his palms. However, his kind of existence will not allow it. His touch passes through her skin, through her entire being. He cannot hold a thing of hers unless she's the one holding him. Neji curses himself right then. He curses the gods for not being fair. "You're bleeding," because of his incompetence, she is hurt. Neji looks around furiously, trying to find anyone, to find any living being to tend to her wound. But everywhere that Neji looks, the people walk around her as if she is stone. Not one person bats an eye.

No spirit can ever fully break the chain of the four elements that shackles the Gates of Anguish. The Nine Heavens forbids inhabitants of the spirit realm to ever experience human feelings. Because the dead have relinquished their life, so too do they leave behind human feelings. Thusly, the chain of four elements is mended to bound strong emotions from ever appearing to spirit realm occupants. As a result, strong attachments between ghouls and humans will not occur as prominently as before. Doing so brings order to both realms. There will be no pain, no longing, no war, and no prospect of forbidden love.

However, Neji worries constantly. And because she is hurt, he is hurting for her. His immense distress disrupts the Nine Heavens. It kindles the chain of four elements existing in Neji's soul-hood, setting scorching fire to the Gates of Anguish from within. For a soul, it is unlikely that anything like this could ever occur. He cannot feel any difference before the chain sets ablaze and after it has been reduced to ashes. No spirit or ghoul, not even a soul will be able to sense the opened Gate of Anguish.

Startled with a "feeling" of prickly pain at the center of his chest, he can only stare at Tenten hollowly and clutch his chest. This feeling hinders and strengthens his resolve to keep his tenant safe. Neji can "feel" pain albeit one burrowed from within his soul.

Tenten brushes her middle finger over the burning sensation on her temple and feels the fluid between her fingers. She bleeds but she cannot see it. "We have to get out," her feet begin to move. In her eyes, she's walking in a void. "Lead me out- ack!" The demon's hot breath flares behind Tenten's ear and she flees with him in hand.

Neji's clenched fist leaves his chest and he is forced to run with her. He looks back to the demon chasing after them. Her blood trails after them. He knows there is no other way to escape except to kill this demon. No matter how much Neji reaches and tries to pry Tenten's grasp from his hand, all it does is go through her person. Neji closes his eyes shut and vanishes like petals in a windstorm, falling out of her grasp. It is the only way to protect her. He quickly reappears to stand firmly between his tenant and the demon. Although he knows she cannot see, he tells her to continue running anyways. "Forward, without stopping. Go until you cannot feel anything." He grabs the demon by the foot and throws it across the wall just as it tries to pass him. The wall rumbles. The passersby evidently hear it but continue on in their routine.

"Not without you!" Tenten has stopped and turned around to find him.

The demon returns with arms yearning to grab her from behind. "I'm literally right behind you! Go!" Neji strikes the demon once to the ground. "Go!"

Tenten watches as he battles an invisible thing. She stares down to her trembling fingers shaking until her entire hand quake. Following his resolution, she turns back and runs forward until the darkness swallows her entire being.

The paper bag rattles and the sound of her footsteps fade away. Tempted, Neji turns around to look at her. With this glance, he realizes how bright she is. She is a beacon of light, one that draws darkness towards it. As far as she has distanced herself from him, her white light is still strongly seen.

"_Acquiring such a body of force will even allow the weakest of ghouls to battle with heavens above."_

Neji's eyes flicker, "Who said that?" He looks around, finding no one but the demon chasing after her. He has let his guard down.

Despite never hearing such a voice in his entirety, it shakes him to his core. That voice is certainly his' and for no known reason, it brings him nostalgia. "No time to ponder," Neji glares at the cricket-like demon hopping towards his person. The sound of his bare feet etches the tiles, a squeak is heard. Waist bent ninety degrees and arms stretched back, Neji sprints towards the demon at a speed thought incapable until now. Beyond the speed of light, he roundhouse kicks it, splattering its blackened guts on the wall. The sound of impact ripples through the crowded hallway. Still, no one is alert to it. Neji merely spectates in awe as his body moves on its own. _Muscle memory._

Neji stares down at the demon bitterly. It finds itself difficult to stand but it will not disappear either. "You shall be cast by hell's rope to serve time for your greed-" Neji startles himself with his own words. These foreign words are not his', at least, not from his memory. Neji gasps, holding three fingers to his lips. "What the-" With not a moment to waste, his fingers abruptly leaves his lips and crosses to his hips. He cannot comprehend his body's own doing and can only observe as it acts.

Moving in a motion as if to cast an iron chain, although there exists nothing in his hands, Neji spins and releases the absent thing to capture the demon. When it is done and he has resumed his stance, Neji loosens the fixed frame of his shoulders. He stares at the demon with a dull expression. Neji is at a loss for words and so is the demon. The demon seethes at him before it leaves and takes the darkness with it. Neji blows out a breath. "What the hell was I doing?" Neji turns around, "Tenant?"

As he turns to meet with her, she is not there. She should have been far from the end of the hall where the old woman was. However, she is not where he last saw her. She isn't even beside him. Against the shuffling of people who do not notice his existence or lack thereof, Neji begins to pace to where he last saw her stand. He lifts himself to the air and flies further from that dead-end that they entered. High above the heads of people looking in the opposite direction, Neji makes it to the last place where she was seen. She is not here.

"Make way! Medics' here!" A loud shout vibrates through the underground market. Two first responders run straight through his ghostly figure towards where that narrow red hallway is. That dead-end is where they first came out and it is where she first entered the half realm. Neji doubts that his tenant will be there. He certainly saw her run from that point to the other side of the passageway. Still, the voices of the first responders make him second-guess himself. Mind solely focused on finding her, Neji drifts through the obstacles with ease, surpassing even those two medics.

Worry fills his soul the closer he gets to the dead-end. The crowd mutters many things but he does not linger on it. At the foot of the narrow hallway, Neji finds his tenant with his carmine paper bag in her white-knuckled fists. She has never run; she hasn't moved a single step. Tenten is unconscious on the ground flailing her limbs indiscriminately. She's in a seizure. Fear gnaws his entire core. It shakes and shivers. It even causes him agony. Neji feels pain deeply erupting from his soul-hood but he does not understand why. _How can such a meager worry hurt so much?_ Neji kneels down and reaches for her knowing full well that it is impossible.

"Tenant," he softly calls to her. The medics arrive and occupy his space. Neji disregards them.

"We don't know what to do, she couldn't breathe and hurt herself during the fall-" a passerby explains once more to the medics.

"Thanks, please make room," they both lay Tenten on her side and wait for the seizure to pass.

Neji gulps, not knowing what else to do. He sits on his feet and curls his hands into fists at his knees. "The demon is gone. There's no more to fear, Tenten." He holds his breath if it is even possible in his state. Neji has just come to realize that this is his first time putting her name through his lips. It rolls off of his tongue breathlessly.

The seizure stops the moment her name chimes. Neji lets out his breath and calls her name again, "It's hard to come up with words to comfort you who are hurting. Although I'm incapable of having a heart, it's beginning to hurt a lot. So please wake up to make it stop."

Tenten opens her eyelids cautiously, beholding Neji in her vision. She sighs holds her head in confusion. "Ouch-" there is a red scratch at her temple.

"Try to sit up, miss," a medic helps Tenten sit up, "You just had a seizure, miss. Do you feel okay to walk? Do you need help returning home?"

"I had a seizure?" Tenten meets the medic's gaze. "Not a trance?" she whispers to herself.

After turning to run, Tenten no longer saw her charm. She has left him in that darkness. And in the spare of a few seconds in that void, Tenten wakes up to a man telling her she just had a seizure. Despite the medic asking her questions, she is listening for the sound of Neji's voice. When her vision clears, she finds him kneeled by her side with a heavy expression on his face. Tenten knows that at that moment, something has changed in his eyes.

* * *

The neighbor's radio plays the blues as the sky reveals a cloudless night. Tenten's window opens halfway; part of her curtain is tucked with a heavy book. The aroma of instant noodles fills the air. It escapes through the parted window, flowing along with the calm breeze. The old yellow kitchen light warmly illuminates her apartment. At home after a cold session burning her charm's clothing discreetly, she wants nothing but a hot meal.

In the living room, Neji sits at the low bookshelf looking out to the dark blue skies. The radio tune sounds horrible and he, in turn, has decided to listen to the indiscriminate noises his tenant is making. As the minutes passed and the thoughts begin to surround on her, Neji finds himself doting on his tenant. The more his mind runs in circles around her, the more his adoration for her intensifies. He likes her. This time, he has a more definitive reason why.

Neji hugs one knee closely to his chest. He swears he can almost feel the warmth of his body by just the glance of her ignorant figure. He likes her for all the wrong reasons. He knows he shouldn't, but as that stare turns into a pink haze, a gaze of lucid dreams, Neji inevitably unveils the reason why he's liking her.

It is no love train he's a passenger on. Neji describes it as tolerance to her; perhaps comfort is the more subjective word to describe his relationship with her. He finds comfort in her, speaking to her harshly but with so much feeling. Neji will never forget the pain exhumed from his core when it comes to her. If a mere worry can conjure such anguish to keep him clutching his chest, Neji wonders whether they'll be just tenant and charm. He hasn't asked if they could be friends but it doesn't matter. He wonders if she'll even accept the friendship.

There is more to say; he loves her company. Even though the word "love" might be too strong, Neji finds no words as fitting as that. He loves bickering with her. Through the silent nights that she has slept here, he loves talking endlessly with her until she falls asleep. And when she falls asleep, when she starts visiting the stars, it is only then that Neji stops feeling content. He discovers that he is much more talkative than he remembered when this room used to be his'. He likes talking to someone especially when that someone is her.

It is not that he can bend her to his will that he likes her. It is because despite him asking her to incline the train higher and give him offerings, despite asking her to steer it high above the ocean, she does it on her own volition. Coasting on a bridge high up in the sky, she switched the rails for him although she did not have to. Neji likes her because the choice is certainly hers. All the things she does is certainly hers; it is her style, her gait, her annoying nuances that he likes. Neji likes her with a passion.

Soaring in the qualities of her everything is nothing like swimming. Neji wishes not to drown in her. _Wouldn't that mean that it's love?_ He cannot love a human. It would be devastating to reach for something undoable, almost like asking to undo death. And so, that is why he likes her. That is why he can only ride on the highway train as a passenger. Although his feelings are spilling into the sea, Neji will not fall out of the cart and dive into the waters. He will not drown in that way. He likes her with a passion. It is why even sailing in a sea of her will be detrimental.

The way his orbs even twinkle at the mere thought of touching the waters, Neji knows it will be a harrowing task to be her charm until she finds his body.

Through the ceiling, black articles of clothing fall in slow motion, blocking Neji's view of his tenant. He blinks and releases his hugged knee. The thud of the clothing spins her around. She chuckles and waves her chopsticks at him.

"Finally! I can't believe it took this long for your clothes to get to you. I thought we were gonna have to sleep before it arrives."

Neji reduces his adoration for her to ashes. Solemnly, he picks up the clothes she burned for him and immediately feels the creaminess of the fabric. He gasps softly, feeling silk through his fingertips, "It's soft."

Tenten smiles at his comment, "Of course. Such a shame that it had to be burned. Where's the hat?" She turns off the stove and uses two folded napkins to hold the handles of the pot. "I'm gonna eat! Move out of the way if you don't want it spilled on your clothes-"

Neji steps aside and watches as she sets the tiny pot onto the short-legged table. "I don't think that's how it works, no?"

She shrugs, "You wanna test it out?" Tenten dashes back into the kitchen to grab the two bowls of rice and another pair of chopsticks.

"Not really," Neji says detachedly. He unfolds his clothes, unraveling all the different articles onto the ground. "Which do I put on first?"

Tenten crouches down to set the items on the table. "You wanna wear it first?"

"Of course," Neji replies, "I didn't go through all of this just to wait in the end." He puts on the outer cross-collared tunic, adjusting the length of the sleeves to no avail.

"You're wearing it wrong," Tenten corrects him. Her feet hastily makes its way to him. She picks up the undergarment tunic from the ground and reaches for the tunic on his body, "Take it off."

Neji immediately guards his body, holding his shoulders protectively with crossed arms. _Since when did she close distance?_ "Oh my- have you no shame?!"

Tenten is taken aback. She frowns and steps back and points at his tunic, "Hurry and take it off. I'll help you put it on."

Neji stares at her with cold eyes before reluctantly shimmying the tunic off. He hands it to her to which she sets it to the ground. But even when she has done so, her eyes seem to ask for more to be done. Neji peers at her with suspicion, "What?"

"You're going to wear those old clothes under these new ones?" she asks him seriously.

Neji squints at her before unsettling heat fills his cheeks. He is flabbergasted, "You want me to undress in front of you?!" His hands resume holding his arms protectively in a crossed fashion. "I can't believe-"

Tenten shrugs, "It's just a body. I'm sure you've seen mine before our house contract-"

"Untrue!" Neji screeches over her. "I would never!"

"Does it matter?" Tenten approaches him with the tunic in her hand and he flinches. She takes in one deep breath and sighs hoarsely, "I can't believe even ghosts want privacy."

"I'm a soul!"

Tenten rolls her eyes and throws the undergarment tunic at him. Neji catches it, still feeling uneasy around her. Tenten kneels down to the articles on the ground and begins to sift through them. "I'm putting these in order for you. I guess you can disappear into my bathroom and put them on? Since you wanted privacy so much-"

"It's actually my bathroom," Neji corrects her.

Tenten stares at him sternly before getting up and handing him his clothes forcefully, "You better hurry or I'll eat all of our food."

Neji raises a brow, "Our?" That prickly heat starts to crawl to his ears.

"Mmhm, you said you wanted food, didn't you? As a part of your offering?"

Speechless, Neji's sight falters, "Ah, right." His feet dribbles from side to side until clarity tells him to do what she says. Neji flings to the bathroom. He is flustered.

It is almost the end of tonight. Tenten sniffs and walks over to the window. She closes it and removes the heavy book. The curtain drapes over the outside scenery instantly. Sitting on the cushion with an elbow propping her head on the short-legged table, Tenten listens to the muffled radio from her neighbor. Her eyes linger on the steam from the rice. It will die out soon. The noodles inside the pot may have been overcooked with all the wait. Just as Tenten's stomach growls, she hears a meek "hey" from behind. She turns around to find him facing a wall.

Neji peeks over his shoulder to her and clears his throat, "Thanks for the offering," he shyly admits.

Tenten removes her head from her hand and snickers, "Turn around? Does it fit?"

Neji does so but with much resemblance to a difficult door. He keeps his head high and eyes to the ceiling. A blush hovers around his cheeks, making him feel vulnerable. "Well?" he asks.

Tenten giggles and gets up to her feet. She crosses her arms and judges how he has worn the clothes.

Neji glances to her light-hearted laughter, "What?"

"It's just-" Tenten tilts her head to the side briefly before biting her thumbnail. "The sash, you wore it wrong. The knot should be at the back and the length shouldn't be this long."

Neji looks down in embarrassment, "I see," he manages to choke out. His hands hurry to undo the knot. When it is loose, he looks to her for advice, "What now? Do I wrap it like this?" Flurrying to fix his mistake, Neji loses all coordination in his hands. He wraps the sash many times, each time, it is incorrect.

"Just-" Tenten watches painfully as she tries to point out his wrongdoings. "Maybe don't overlap-" she bites her thumbnail again. Frustration grows on her forehead as she watches the soul fail to figure out how to put on the sash. "Don't fold- Agh," disappointedly, Tenten steps in seeing as how her coaching isn't working. She takes the sash into her hands and wraps it around his waist. In just a firm bind, she has tied the sash snugly behind his back. However, by nature, it isn't this easily said.

Tenten finds herself feeling embarrassed by this situation. With their proximity closed, with her arms wrapped around a man's waist, be it a soul or not, she is bound to feel awkward. Her fingers begin to stiffen when it becomes obvious that his eyes are on her. Staring lowly as she must lean in to tie the sash once and for all, Tenten even holds her breath. She does not know why she could not say a word. He felt gentle then. He hasn't done anything to her. Tenten can only blame herself. When the last knot is tied, she thanks the gods for not letting souls reciprocate their touch.

With one loud yelp, Tenten calls for dinner to be eaten. By her word, she invites Neji to dine with her tonight. Sticking the chopsticks into the rice, she calls his name and sends her food as an offering to the soul. She eats loudly, chews loudly, and even slurps loudly.

Neji knows this is part of a distraction. However, he can't really be distracted by it; her face is distracting enough. He eats the bowl of rice and even fishes noodles from the same pot. But as their meal comes to a close, Neji hasn't the time to fully take in the shy look in her eyes when she tied his sash for him. As soon as the table is cleared and the dishes are left unwashed in the sink, she has announced her retirement into the bath. Neji supposes he had done something wrong. But if it is just by how he looked at her, he doubts she'd make a fuss about it. Neji touches his temple, recalling the red scratch on her own temple when her face leaned so close to him. He wonders if it hurts.

Tenten bores holes onto the bathroom door as she sits in the bathtub. She dares the soul to pop in and peek. This way she can beat him enough to taste death. Tenten sighs as frustration rises up to her neck. She is baffled at her own feelings. _If not for him being so tangible, so human in every way, maybe it wouldn't be so awkward._ Through the bath, Tenten even takes a shower to ponder in her confusion. And when the fog fills the tiny bathroom, choking her up, Tenten finally steps out. Wearing a two-piece pajama, she struts out with a big ego to hide her faltering consciousness.

By the ground, she finds him sitting crisscrossed with his chin propped by his hand. His elbow rests on his knee. Tenten stomps over to her closet and pulls out her futon and blanket, "What's in that big head of yours?"

Neji sneers as she rolls the futon through his legs. "Just thinking how shameless you are."

"What are you trying to say, huh?" Tenten throws the pillows to the futon and carries her heavy blanket to him. She slightly kicks his thigh, "Move out of the way."

"Did I get to you so hard that you spent two hours in the bathroom?" Neji vanishes and appears at the low shelf. He sits on it and crosses his arms.

Tenten scoffs, "Oh please, with what?" She frays out her blanket and messily rolls onto her futon.

"Admit it, you were beyond awkward when I gave you that look," Neji looked down at her with a smirk on his lips.

Tenten simply turns and lays the other way as not to see him, "Who wouldn't? What? Do you like me? Is that why you looked at me like that?"

Neji stiffens up and denies it completely, "That's impossible."

"Exactly. You and I are not the same," Tenten cautions him. "You're getting too comfortable."

"You're annoying to hear," Neji lies.

"That's it, I propose a new house agreement," Tenten proposes, she holds onto her blanket tightly.

"Bogus," Neji comments. "That would be breaking the old one, inferring that you are ready to give up the apartment."

Tenten flips around to Neji in anger. She throws her pillow at him to which it goes through him with ease. "Even if I send you to your body, even if you are a person again, I will never like you, big head!" She fakes a barf and retrieves her pillow madly. "What a smart mouth! No one will ever fall in love with that attitude of yours."

Neji rolls his eyes and looks the other way. "The sooner you take me to my body the better."

"Something we agree on," Tenten tucks the pillow under her head and lays with her back to him. In her heart, she knows she will never bring him to his body. It is still clear to her that she needs him. After graduating from her apprenticeship, she'll probably need him even more.

The night is coming to a close. The silence following Tenten's words lasts long enough for Neji to believe she has gone asleep. However, her guardian spirit hasn't arrived yet to protect her when she is unconscious. Neji glances at the ceiling again. He wonders when his hat will fall.

"Say," her voice captures his soul and shakes him awake.

Neji stares down to her back, "What."

Tenten's eyes are wide open. They have been open for quite some time. It does not need to be said that she is afraid to sleep tonight because of what happened in the underground market. Tenten cannot stop thinking about it. She holds her hands together at the memory of grabbing her charm's hand. _In desperation, I look to him and asked for help. _Although she cannot feel the warmth from a soul's hand, she knows that his heart is radiating in warmth. His spirit is kind and his heart is big. Although he speaks harshly, his words are filled with human feelings. It brings her back to her feet treading behind him in that underground market. Tenten moves her hands to her lips and she tries to recall how his hand fits in hers. _So trivial. He's beginning to take on more meanings than just being my charm._

"What."

Tenten hears him ask. The question she put aside whilst following him to the narrow red hallway pops in her head. "Why is your hair so long?" she asks him dryly. All the meaningful things are gone from her lips, "Do you want me to offer you a scissor? So you can cut your hair? Or I can cut them for you."

Neji laughs. "My hair has never been a problem. Why would I cut it?"

Just as the last syllable rolls off his tongue, his offered hat falls from thin air and onto Tenten's head. She shrieks and jumps out of her futon. "Oh my god! I thought it was some ghost's head!" She grabs the hat and throws it to him.

Neji shakes with mirth and catches the hat. He sets it to the side of him, "That's for asking such an absurd question."

"What? Are your shoes going to fall too?" Tenten eyes the ceiling above her futon, refusing to climb back to bed.

"You're right. I've been barefoot for so long I almost forgot you burned the shoes too."

The shoes plopped onto the futon upon mentioning it. Tenten pinches them and hands it to Neji, "Hopefully that's all for tonight."

"Stop talking and go to sleep," Neji also sets the shoes aside. "I'm getting tired just talking to you," he lies. In fact, he could talk through the night if she wanted to.

Tenten rolls back onto her futon and stares at Neji for a bit. Her head is muddled with certain things that she cannot straighten out. However, just seeing him for a moment brings serenity to her. She knows that with him beside her, she will fall asleep into good dreams only. Tenten simpers at him, "Goodnight, I guess."

Neji is breathless with her final goodbye for the night. He cannot find the courage to say the same to her. And as her eyelids close and her gentle breaths begin to sound, Neji feels the happiness within him rest too. He gazes at her sleeping contours for a bit longer. Soon her spirit guardian will appear and chase the darkness away with her glowing light. And soon, he will be forced to occupy a corner of her room for the night like all those other nights.

Clearing his throat as silently as he could, Neji stands up and collects his offerings. He heads for the closet. But before he could throw his newly offered goods into the closet, the white glow of her spirit guardian materializing casts a shadow over him. Neji turns around to find Tenten's spirit guardian standing, unlike all those other times where she sat. And before he could utter a question as to what the spirit guardian is doing, she drops her weapon. In big steps, Tenten's spirit guardian lunges towards Neji.

"Wha-" Neji drops his offered goods and attempts to evade her but it is no use. The room is small and she has already captured him with her might. Despite being physically bigger than her, Neji is helpless and feeble in her grasp. Just one short shove brings Neji to be pinned by the closet. Her spirit guardian slowly leans her head in until there is nothing more but a millimeter between their noses. Her breaths are hot and she is angry. However, for him, he has never seen anything so ethereal up close.


	5. From This Point Onwards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tenten's Spirit Guardian confronts Neji in the most radical way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit expository! Enjoy!  
If you haven't seen the drawing I made for this chapter, scroll down to the bottom!

"Don't like her," her spirit guardian commands.

Eyes wide in befuddlement, Neji stares at her as a bloody streak runs down her temple, the exact place where her physical form is merely reddened. Her wound bleeds and collects at her robe. Perhaps it hurts, but he cannot tell. The fury in her eyes does not perceive the wound as so.

Speechless, Neji almost forgets she has him pinned against the wall. Their distance does not faze him one bit. And as the first few thoughts of her pass by, her words finally cave into his ears.

"Why?" Neji asks her. "I want to."

"You can't," her spirit guardian stresses.

"I already have-"

"Why must you like her?!" Her spirit guardian raises him up the wall. Her deep wound continues to bleed. "The heavens will not allow it. Stop while she hasn't a clue."

Neji's eyes flicker through the spirit guardian to the sleeping person. They settle there whilst a contemplation takes place in his head. His lips soon curl into a smirk.

"You should know that a soul's attachment to a human becomes undoable once its mind is made," he whispers hoarsely to the spirit guardian. Neji laces his fingers onto the spirit guardian's wrists and squeezes them gently. "I can't take these feelings back. You can't force me."

The spirit guardian's frown deepens until her anger dissipates from her existence. She glances down, red veins bulging from her forehead. A hefty breath expels from her lips after a momentary tremble. The spirit guardian meets Neji's eyes once more, this time, there is malice in her eyes.

"Then, I'll just have to exorcise you from this place."

Fear strikes in Neji's heart. He has never witnessed anyone of her sort wield total power over him. He's not even sure if she can feel his touch as he struggles to escape her grip.

However, that struggle lasts little. The spirit guardian releases him. Her weapon flies into her hands. Imbued with unimaginable powers, she takes several steps back to her physical form and readies her stance.

Neji feels his spine rattle. Her fierce aura prevents him from fleeing. He stands before his presumed enemy like a doll and watches as she raises her weapon to the ceiling.

Above them, the sky cries a thunderous bolt. It ushers rainfall from outside. The spirit guardian slashes a beam of light throughout the apartment. The pesky soul who has meddled against the orders of the nine heavens deserves to be incinerated by her blade. That which she has done. Yet, once the imbued weapon completes its exorcism, Neji still stands unscathed and in full form. The spirit guardian's gaze hardens to stone. No demons nor souls have survived her exorcism in the nine lives she's been reincarnated but him. The spirit guardian lets out a gasp. Her weapon falls to the floor loudly.

White light engulfed the room when she raised her weapon to which Neji shields his eyes by closing them and with a faulty forearm. Then, the silence of her execution becomes nothing more when the sound of falling rain echoes through to his ears.

Neji meekly opens his eyes to find himself in darkness again except with the spirit guardian as his source of light. He finds her fallen to her knees on top of the human to which his soul's heart has fallen for. "What happened?" he asks the dispirited guardian.

The human sleeps soundly; her breaths are rhythmic against the backdrop of splashing rain. Time ticks onwards as the spirit guardian fails to give an answer to him. Soon, his standing becomes tiresome too. Neji lowers to his knees and sits on his heels. Judging by the silent lips of this spirit guardian, she must be as confused as he is.

When the human's breath hitches, Neji looks up to the spirit guardian. The refrigerator begins its hum. Yet, they sit in silence for what seems to be hours cruising on by. However, it does not seem to be perceived that way for both of them.

The spirit guardian parts her lips and her eyes begin to climb up to meet his' after forging her conclusion.

"I don't understand why you're stuck here or why you choose to be here," she speaks directly to him. Neji raises a brow. "I've looked past all occurrences of my nine lives to understand if I've met someone akin to you but to no fruition. Indeed, I am baffled that you survived my attack. But I can't seem to see past what you say you are. You are no soul."

"What do you mean?" Neji clarifies.

"My person here believes you are a wandering one, that you have a body to return to. But you have no body to inhabit."

Neji huffs and scoffs, "I don't have to listen to you." _I have a body. She said I do._

"Who put you here?" the spirit guardian asks him. "How can you forsake your duty and haunt this ground as if you're a mere ghost?"

"I am a soul!" Neji cuts her questions in half. He stands up with fists shaking by his sides. "You know nothing about me." He mumbles to himself, "I don't even know myself."

"You wear the attire of heaven's special agents," the spirit guardian stands up as well, provoking him.

Neji steps towards her with growing insecurities within him, "I just thought they looked cool-"

"No," the spirit guardian spits back. She steps towards him as well, "you were drawn to it. It is as if you could not take your eyes off of it, as if it was a piece of you. Therefore you must have it. And you did everything you could to have it be offered to you."

"That's not true-"

"You coerced my physical form to obtain this attire for you. You put her in danger, lured her into the merchant's lair, and enticed one of the most desperate demons to take her light," the spirit guardian presses her forehead against Neji's own, smearing her bloodied skin onto his'. "You knew she was a weak one, you knew she hadn't earned her shamanhood and threw her directly into harm's way."

"I protected her— you!" Neji protests. The spirit guardian is taken aback. Her eyes widen in minor shock. "Thinking of it again makes my blood boil," he seethes, breathing harshly as his knuckles turn white. "I don't want to hurt you. Because, if you're in pain, then I'm in pain alongside you."

The spirit guardian winces at his words. She shoves him violently and bears disgust on her countenance, "How can you not see it when it is so clear to me?"

Neji stumbles backward and recollects his balance. Already, the spirit guardian is gaining new grounds towards him.

"You are heaven's agent. Hence why my blade cannot slash you to hell. Hence why you fought the demon in such a fashion and spouted citations from the nine heavens' 'Order of Life and Death.' Hence why the grim reaper you met greeted you so."

"I don't believe you," Neji says as he is consumed by the spirit guardian's exposition. He shakes his head in denial, contrary to his heart. What the spirit guardian says justifies the oddities displayed to him prior.

The spirit guardian breathes in a shallow breath just as the slumber of her physical form turns to her side. She wipes away the blood trickling down her face with her sleeve. In one sweep, her wound is gone. She stands before the lost grim reaper to seek consolidation.

"Perhaps it is heaven's punishment that you've been cast to this place to repent for your wrongdoings. And though I do not know what it is that you've done wrong, I believe it was a bad one," she tells him.

"Why do you say things that relieve me of my contempt for you? You almost killed me," Neji says with a blank expression. His eyes, half-lidded, kindly lay on the person soundly sleeping the night away. "Why do you comfort me, reassure me of my situation?"

The spirit guardian watches as his back hits the closet door. And as he accepts her reasoning wholeheartedly, she watches him slide down and collapse against the wall.

"Well," the spirit guardian walks to his side and squats down beside him, "agents of heaven cannot harm one another. So, I did not kill you. But I want to comfort and reassure you because she cannot." The spirit guardian also glances out to her physical form. "Also because at the root of us three who have seemingly intermingled ourselves with a bogus fate, I cannot have you fall for a human."

Neji sits quietly, absorbing the tales of the spirit guardian.

"A grim reaper and a shaman should not have such complicated ties. Regardless if she reciprocates your feelings or not, you will not have a happy ending in the end," the spirit guardian lets out a sigh and closes her eyes. "There is a reason why you are an agent of heaven."

"A grim reaper," his words fall off into silence shortly. "I must've done something selfish in my past life," Neji breathes out. His lips barely move.

"Suicide is a direct path towards becoming one," the spirit guardian determines, "but maybe not for you. You've been placed here. You must've done something worthy of this punishment."

Neji turns his gaze to the glowing spirit beside him in a dull fashion, "And I won't be happy in the end?"

The spirit guardian shakes her head, "Grim reapers deserves no salvation for they did not value their life. It is why you must stop yourself now. Even if you greedily stay beside her to fill your love, a day will come when your conscience as an agent of the heavens overtakes your desire."

"A soul's attachment cannot be undone once it has been cast," Neji recites upon remembrance. Already, his connection as a grim reaper has already become clearer. "The heavens will punish me for I've already broken the chain of the four elements."

"That you have," the spirit guardian replies, "it is why I am so harsh on you. Destroying the Gates of Anguish is a death sentence to keeping personal feelings at bay."

Neji's eyes become glossy. As he stares into the spirit guardian's orbs, it is harder for him to speak. "I can't go back. I can't stop looking out for her. To me, she is my person."

The spirit guardian returns the glance with indifference. She wipes his tears away with her sleeve and sweeps her blood from his forehead. "Why did these feelings conjure?"

"I'm less lonely when I'm with her," Neji confesses. He turns his gaze back to the sleeping form and with a soft voice, he speaks, "For the first time, I want to step outside this place. When I'm with her, I feel almost alive. I get to try things ordinary people do, eat meat skewers, drink… I get to laugh and feel all these emotions I'd never feel if not for her. But most importantly, in here," Neji points his thumb to his chest, "my heart is thumping. I can hear it and it is warm. I think to myself, 'Ah, so this must be what it feels like to be human.' So, I can't help but want to feel like a part of someone's world. Is it so wrong to want to feel human?"

The spirit guardian watches him with unemotional eyes. "You had forfeit your rights to feel human in your past life. You will be duly punished for seeking them now."

"I only wish that the heavens are lenient," Neji cannot help but render an ill tear from his eyes as his thoughts run to her again. "I want to be reborn again and find her. Perhaps you'll be there."

"Perhaps not," the spirit guardian regurgitates, "after all, I am the last calico. After this life, I'll probably return to the nine heavens."

Neji wipes his tear away and tilts his head to face her. "Come to think of it, I don't know much about you."

"Of course not," the spirit guardian chuckles, "my physical form, she is a bit dense when it comes to the facts of the spirit world."

"So," Neji inquires, "what exactly are you?"

The spirit guardian hums a short tune with a grin on her face, "I'm just this dying rock's little scattered charm. I make the impossible happen. And when people believe in me, I feel like the luckiest charm this world would ever have," her face falls flat and her gaze unfocused. The life in her voice diminishes as well. The spirit guardian cradles her knee, "But people's hearts are too dark in this age. Even when I've fixed the wrong things on the other side, it isn't enough to bring change to these people's lives. It is always so busy in the land of the living. People are living their lives so quickly and storing darkness in their hearts and moving onwards. It is why I am the last calico. There is no point in solving otherworldly issues when it cannot improve the lives of the living."

"How was life back then?" Neji asks.

The spirit guardian glances at him and then snickers, "There is no past to speak of. There is no use to try to remember how things were." She then frowns, "Don't try to use me to recollect your memories. I may hold vast knowledge but I cannot tell them to you."

Neji scoffs and looks away, "Don't try to make yourself feel better for not knowing my past life."

"Huff," she crosses her arms, "I can see everything about you just by looking at your eyes. Tsk, tsk, tsk, you are so pitiful."

"Am I not pitiful now?"

"No, you're bothersome," the spirit guardian irks her head towards her physical form sleeping through the night. "But I tell you, you will be one of the most pitiful souls in the future."

Neji simpers, "Maybe that'll lean the odds in my favor when my judgment befalls upon me."

The spirit guardian's somber orbs float to Neji's profile. She smiles until the reasons for why he's in this predicament flashes across her mind. And then that smile protracts until it is nothing but a thin line. The spirit guardian's nostrils flare and she gulps down the heat of anger within her chest.

"Well, morning is arriving, Mister Grim Reaper. Let's not meet again."

"Let's not," Neji replies back.

"Heed my advice!" The spirit guardian stands to her feet and shuffles to her physical form, "from this point onwards, don't like her."

Her guardian spirit gives him knowledge without yielding. And as much as he wishes to believe the sleeping figure before him, Neji cannot push aside the instances he's brushed with.

Neji watches as the light emitting from the spirit guardian fades to black. Consumed in darkness with an impending sun, he lays his eyes upon the sleeping figure in his home. As to whether this place is his home or not, he does not ponder it for long. So long as this human is here, this can be his home.

To be a keeper of death fits him prolifically.

However, there is no telling if this attachment to a human can be revoked. Neji cannot help but want to stay.


End file.
